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Trip: Poland - Hungary - Ukraine (Aug. 2017 - ?? Sept. 2017
Poland: my views have not changed... I made a long bicycle trip outside of Wroclaw, and it's nicer than in NL, but I don't see in Poland what I really like in Ukraine.
So after 3 days I went to Hungary by bus (flixbus, which doesn't require you to print out a ticket, nice, just show the code on your smartphone).
Other options for bustravel, esp. between Ukraine and Poland is Naszbus (www.nashbus.com) which travels in Ukraine and Poland. After a trip with Naszbus to Wroclaw, then after a short stop there taking a bus to NL, and the other way around to Ukraine is an option for a very cheap trip to Ukraine. (70 euro or so), excellent for if you have not made a fixed plans (regarding dates) for your trip as then it's a lot cheaper than by airplane. But this only worthwile if you have enough time.
On the way to Hungary: Travelling through Slovakia I saw lots buildings with displays for car sales. Hilly terrain, narrow roads, style of houses doesn't appeal and in villages mostly houses quite closely built to the roads. Why?
Then getting into Hungary I see narrow roads, esp. into Budapest, which caused a 5 minute distance to take 30 minutes (i.e. a traffic jam) even at 6.20 in the morning...
Outside Budapest it is very green, rolling landscape/hills, I like that. I only saw small towns on the way to Budapest...
Budapest: It is a noisy stone jungle with mostly nice style old buildings but too close together and not enough green. Budapest feels a bit like Kiev: many beautiful buildings, river through the city, a statue on the bank of the river which in Budapest is an eagle( ?), vs. in Kiev Rodina Mat, a lot of noise in both cities, nice parks in both cities, but there are some big differences and Budapest is not as nice as Kiev: Budapest is smaller, the buildings closer together (quite narrow streets), there is less green, the parks are not as nice, and it is less cool in all aspects and it is missing a lot of the things from Ukraine that I really like. It feels to me even noisier than Kiev and this is a big reason for why I didn't really enjoy my stay in Budapest. Staying in a hostel was again quite useful to see views of people from other countries and from Hungary, and it was amusing. [ e.g. someone was joking about the oddities of various travellers in the hostel that he encountered and that it would be a good idea to write a review of the hostel mentioning what kind of 'nutters' you can encounter there. ;-) Well, would make entertaining reading material, but, really that happens everywhere. I've had a lot of interesting, annoying and strange meetings in various hostels... ]
Talking to the guy running the hostel, tourism in Budapest has increased quite a bit over the last 3 years or so. For me it is too much a tourist city but the main problem is that it is extremely noisy (in this respect it is I think the worst city that I ever visited).
From what I saw during the bus ride and then later on the map, in Hungary there seem to be only small towns, villages and then Budapest... I talked with quite a few people in Budapest about this and yes, there are a few larger cities but not nearly like Budapest. This gives a nice feel, at least outside Budapest. but this means there is not much choice, either live in a quiet town, or in noisy Budapest. I would choose the former...
I tried a traditional Hungarian cake with cinnamon that's very tasty (but everything with cinnamon and sugar is tasty, right? ;-) ) and a very intense lemon juice... Too intense (I later found in Ukraine a fantastic lemon juice by Sandora), and ditto lime juice! (both from Spar, originally a German supermarket)
After being in Budapest for 1 day, I decided to go visit a small town, Szentendre, at the recommendation of a few people, using the 'green train': It reminds me a bit of some towns in Ukraine, but with better maintained buildings. I talked to a few students, 1 did most of the talking and she thought that Romania will soon overtake Hungary in economy/wealth. They said Szentendre is mostly made up of tourists, and it's aimed at tourists, so this was for me the wrong choice of town to visit as I wanted to see more of the real rural Hungary. So next time, if there comes a next time, I will go to some 'unknown' town.
I felt that my trip really showed again what I already knew, and I decided to not continue travelling in Hungary and even to skip visiting Romania and Moldova, at least for now, and to go directly to Ukraine, more specifically to Ivano Frankivsk.
First by Polski-bus (as flixbus they also don't require you to print out anything, just show the confirmation on smartphone/tablet or even write it down). This bus would go from Budapest at 17.20 to Krakow (arriving 0.20), then Sindbad eurolines at 01.15 to Ivano-frankivsk arriving 12.00. The driver of the bus in Krakow to IF, which I was later sure had to be my bus to IF, said that it wasn't my bus... After waiting another 30 minutes in a rainy, windy and cold Krakow, I just bought a ticket from the driver of a bus to Lvov that was still there at almost 02.00 at night. Then my plan was that once I get to Lvov I would buy a ticket (bus or train) to Ivano-Frankivsk. This option seemed better than to possibly wait all night in Krakow if no other buses to a destination near IF would come. If it had been daytime and nice and warm, then I would have waited...
Travel report: 26-8-2017 - 7-10-2017 (updated 21-12-2017)